Ep 20: Getting College Scholarships with Jocelyn Paonita Pearson

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about different degree programs, but on this episode it’s time to dive into actually paying for college. Scott was joined by the brilliant Jocelyn Paonita Pearson, founder of The Scholarship System, a site all about helping students (and families) find and get college scholarships.

Jocelyn was able to get through college debt-free by financing her education primarily with scholarships (over 6 figures of them)! After spending time working as a financial analyst post graduation, she realized how many people kept asking how she’d gotten so many scholarships. Ever since starting the Scholarship System, Jocelyn has been educating her followers on how to finance college the way she did. Listen in for her best tips and advice for finding and actually getting college scholarships!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

Where to begin your scholarship search whether you’re a student or a parent.

What types of scholarships you should actually look for (and which scholarships to avoid).

The most important things you need to know when applying for college scholarships.

How scholarship payments/disbursements work, and how students should manage them.

Featured on the Show:

The Scholarship System at a Glance

Paying for college tuition out-of-pocket for five kids is virtually impossible. As the oldest of her siblings, Jocelyn knew she would need to find a way to pay for her education on her own. She turned to scholarships as her main source of financial aid, and was able to have all of her college tuition covered and would receive a cash check each semester for any additional expenses. Knowing first-hand that it’s possible to graduate debt-free is what inspired her to start The Scholarship System.

The Scholarship System works with students and their families to save them both time and money by making it easier to find scholarships and create competitive applications. The finding and applying process is broken down into simple, methodical steps, building a system that can secure scholarships. To-date, The Scholarship System has helped families save over $720,000.

What People Are Saying About The Scholarship System

“I am EXCITED to continue the System and am inspired to continue to apply for more scholarships to ultimately be DEBT FREE in 2020!”

“As a parent and as an experienced high school counselor, I appreciate your focused/practical approach to finding college funding.”

Student Resource Pick of the Week: Socratic

At the risk of sounding old, back in my day, you actually had to make an appointment to see a tutor face-to-face, go to a library to look something up, or ask your local Maester for information on White Walkers. Okay, maybe not that last one. The point is, thanks to modern technology, there are plenty of ways to get help with homework assignments without ever having to leave home. And the Socratic app is definitely one of the cooler ways.

To use Socratic, just take a picture of your homework. Yep, snap a picture of the math problem, chemistry equation, grammar question, etc., and be guided to the answer. It gives you the answer, plus it helps you understand why that’s the answer so that you can get it right on future tests too. Using AI (artificial intelligence) to “read” your picture, it provides a couple of paragraphs, examples, and/or videos, that explain the answer more thoroughly. All of the answers come from teachers, students, and other members of the Socratic community.

You can use this for almost every subject, in six different languages, and participate in group chats to get help and help other students too.

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We're the YesCollege team, and we're pretty nerdy when it comes to higher education. Between our awesome podcast, with REAL COLLEGE PROFESSORS, and our database of programs, our goal is to help prospective students make the absolute BEST choice for their degree.